Europe versus Central America

Warning: no jokes in this one. Sorry, but sometimes that's how they come out.

We all know the South Americans have had a good World Cup, but the rest of the Americas have also done better than usual. Having started with four teams, all of them except Honduras made it out of the groups.


There's a popular myth that teams from CONCACAF (the UEFA of North and Central America) come higher in the international rankings than they should, because qualifying involves playing lots of games against Caribbean islands where they have to check they've booked the pitch with the parish council beforehand, and the succession of easy wins boosts their stats.

In fact, the smaller islands now have qualifiers which eliminate them early. The United States, for instance, had to see off Jamaica, Guatemala and Antigua and Barbuda to get through to the main qualifying group, but didn't have to play any islands the size of Lichtenstein or San Marino, to use a European comparison. The main group has six teams who all play each other twice, and the top three go to the World Cup.

The fourth team plays off against the winner of the Oceania qualifiers. This is always New Zealand because Australia has been moved to Asia in footballing terms, which leaves New Zealand on their own against the likes of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. This really is an island-hopping tour, and their only real qualification challenge this time was the playoff against Mexico, who beat them and knocked them out.

So Mexico, in qualifying for this tournament, played Costa Rica, Guyana and El Salvador, then Costa Rica again, the USA, Honduras, Panama and Jamaica, then New Zealand. This is arguably a tougher schedule than England's, and it's hardly surprising if they and their continental rivals have done well.

Europe on the other hand haven't done quite as well as normal. Six of their thirteen teams made the cut, half a country under the average. As a general rule, they've got through at the expense of the African and especially the Asian teams, all four of whom went in the group stage. Only in group E did Europe see off the Americas.

The draw put one of the remaining six European sides in each of the six games left in the round of sixteen, so there were two extreme possibilities. The European sides could have won all six, leaving us with one South American quarterfinal and three that are entirely European, or they could have been eliminated altogether. This would have made my piece on the supremacy of Europe look like the worst prediction even in the history of me predicting things.

As things turned out Holland beat Mexico but Greece lost to Costa Rica, so neither of these things can happen. Holland now play Costa Rica in the quarter finals.

In South Africa four South American teams made it through to the quarter finals, but then European teams put them out one at a time, to leave an entirely European final. This, though, is a South American World Cup, and no European side has ever won here, mainly due to the temperatures. We're about to see if they can break their duck.

Before that, though, we have Europe against Africa tonight. I bet Jared Diamond is watching.